Vernon Ong Lam Kiat

On the judicial record

A Federal Court judge whose reported corpus settles foundational constitutional questions — including the mandatory death penalty and the federal–state division of legislative power — alongside criminal, defamation and commercial law.

Justice Vernon Ong Lam Kiat sits in the Federal Court (Mahkamah Persekutuan), Malaysia's apex court, and the reported decisions in this corpus resolve constitutional, criminal and commercial questions of the first importance. Constitutional adjudication is prominent. A significant decision concerns the validity of the mandatory death penalty for trafficking under section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and for murder under section 302 of the Penal Code, and whether those provisions were unconstitutional. Another examines whether section 28 of a State Syariah Criminal Offences Enactment legislated on a matter within the Federal List of the Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution, engaging the division of legislative power between the Federation and the States.

Criminal law features through a murder appeal involving children sentenced to detention at the pleasure of the Ruler under section 97(2)(b) of the Child Act 2001 and common intention under section 34 of the Penal Code, and a drug-trafficking appeal on the presumption under section 37(da) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and whether a maximum or minimum evaluation of the evidence is required to establish a prima facie case.

Defamation and civil procedure round out the docket, including whether reportage is a distinct defence from qualified privilege or the Reynolds defence of responsible journalism, the procedure by which a member of the Malaysian Bar may move under section 64(6) of the Legal Profession Act 1976 for a complaint against an advocate and solicitor, and the court's inherent power to review its own decision under rule 137 of the Rules of the Federal Court. Arbitration questions arise on setting aside an award and on an injunction restraining an arbitration granted to a non-party, and public law through the scope of an electricity utility's statutory power of disconnection under section 38 of the Electricity Supply Act 1990. The decisions reflect an apex-court judge settling foundational points for the guidance of the courts below.